THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Edith P. Kingman 



EAST OP THE SUMMIT OP MONTE SOLARO IS THIS FORMER HERMITAGE OF 



SANTA MARIA CITRELLA 



Not far away are the extensive ruins of the Villa di Tiberio. "Imperious Csesar, dead 

 and turned to clay, might stop a hole to turn the wind away"; and the corridors and vaulted 

 rooms of the once magnificent retreat of the mighty Tiberius are now used as sheds for the 

 cows of the workaday Caprians. 



The existing lower portion of the 

 Capri structure is a mass of burned 

 Roman brick, forty feet square and fifty 

 feet high, sufficiently conspicuous to 

 show in photographs taken from Monte 

 Solaro, at the other end of the island, 

 two miles away. Its original appear- 

 ance is entirely problematical. It may 

 have had two or three stories. The 

 tower at Boulogne had several stories 

 and was 200 feet high. The Capri 

 tower was not any higher than this, and 

 in all probability not so high, as the ele- 

 vation of the headland is about one thou- 

 sand feet above the sea. It is one of the 

 most valuable and interesting ruins on 

 the entire island. 



Tin; ANCIENTS SIGNALED LONG DISTANCES 



What right have we to assume that 

 Capri was a signal station — an imperial 

 wireless station of ancient Rome? 



In the first place, we know that the 

 ancients signaled in various ways and 

 over long distances. They signaled by 

 beacon fires, by beacon smoke, by pig- 

 eons, by flags, and by shouting from one 

 sentinel to another. 



Lighthouses are as old as the earliest 

 chapters of the Bible. Beacon fires and 

 beacon smoke were commonly used by 

 the early Greeks, and there was no rea- 

 son why the more practical Romans 

 should not have employed improved 

 methods, such as heliographing. 



We do know that at the siege of Syra- 

 cuse by Marcellus mirrors were em- 

 ployed by Archimedes; and though we 

 may doubt the burning of vessels from 

 shore by mirrors, as stated of that occa- 

 sion, we can appreciate the blinding effect 

 of many mirrors on the eyes of the navi- 

 gators of the attacking vessels. That is 

 what probably happened during that con- 



